


I Parade Myself

by peripety



Category: Queer as Folk (US)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-17
Updated: 2011-04-17
Packaged: 2017-10-18 06:55:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/186191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peripety/pseuds/peripety
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Justin and Emmett talk about Justin's relationship with Brian following the confrontation with Chris Hobbs in Episode 1x16. Told from Emmett's POV</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Parade Myself

“Brian! Will you just _wait_ for Justin-“ Emmett demanded. He reached out a hand to grab onto Brian’s jacket and hold him back but missed by an inch. Brian disappeared with Ted inside Woody’s while Justin stood and stared after the enemy he had just resoundingly routed from Liberty Avenue. But, unlike Brian and Ted, Emmett was unwilling to leave Justin alone until he was sure the guy Justin had challenged was definitely gone.

As he watched Justin it occurred to Emmett that while Michael might not be able to understand what Brian saw in The-Twink-Who-Wouldn’t-Go-Away (and Emmett doubted, when it came to Brian, that Michael ever would) _he_ could. He had, in fact, just seen first-hand Justin’s fiery, passionate nature revealed by the in-your-face besting of his homophobic classmate. Emmett pressed his lips together to keep from smiling at also having seen The Great Brian Kinney, self-styled bastard that he was, interpose his precious body between Justin and that Hobbs character when he thought his favorite boy-toy might get himself damaged. _Oh, Brian, baby,_ Emmett thought with a smirk, _you’ve got it worse than you even know._ He savored that idea with gleeful delight.

A half-minute later, Justin came dashing up the steps and into Emmett’s arms, his smile wide and his eyes burning brightly in his flush-cheeked face.

“All right, baby?”

“Did you see that?” Justin asked unnecessarily as he hugged Emmett back. Over the past months Emmett had come to genuinely like Justin; and Emmett had the feeling that Justin gravitated towards him as if he sensed Em was the one who _understood_ – or maybe _accepted_ Justin’s intense passion for his lover - more than Michael or Ted did, anyway. “Brian said—“

“Just what did our Mr. Kinney say?” Emmett asked indulgently, affectionately fingering one of Justin’s chilly earlobes.

“He – he said I’d just made a _real_ enemy,” Justin repeated to Emmett a little breathlessly. Justin was obviously still feeling the rush of adrenaline from seeing his nemesis turn tail and run, but Emmett felt a shiver pass through Justin’s slender frame and saw the light flicker slightly in his eyes.

“That’s because he doesn’t want anything to happen to you, baby,” Emmett squeezed him close, ever willing to be the optimist.

“Do you really think so?” Justin asked with a look that was hopeful.

 _Oh, my, the stars in his eyes…_ “Justin,” Emmett said in that same indulgent tone as he fussed with the front of the young blonde’s vest with covetous fingers. “I just saw Brian-fucking-Kinney put that precious body – the one he tends and cares for like the prized possession that it is - at risk for you.” _And I wouldn’t have believed it unless I had seen it with my own eyes._

Emmett could almost see the wheels spinning in Justin’s head before an illuminating smile crossed his face, as if he was remembering how Brian had interposed himself between him and Hobbs. “He did, didn’t he?”

“Saw it with my own eyes,” Emmett confirmed wryly.

Justin’s eyes suddenly focused intently on Emmett’s face. “I think he - he sort of - he loves me, you know,” Justin declared with a mix of bravado and uncertainty. It made Emmett’s soft heart ache to see it. “He won’t admit it, but he does.”

“Sweetie,” Emmett sighed. He wasn’t able to see Brian Kinney through the rose-colored glasses Justin wore. He’d known him too long and too well.

“He does,” Justin repeated, as if he knew exactly what Emmett was thinking.

 _Brian Kinney…love anyone besides himself?_ was Emmett’s first thought. But, then again, Emmett had to admit… “In all the years I’ve known him you’re the only lover – and you know he’d _kill_ me for using that word – the only lover he’s ever had a relationship with." Grinning, he put the R-word in air quotations.

“Really?”

Again, Emmett watched Justin light up brighter than Debbie’s so-appropriate nickname for him. _And,_ Emmett thought, _who was he to say that it wasn’t true?_ Maybe this bright, passionate kid truly had turned the head of jaded Brian Kinney.

“Well, as my Aunt Lula used to say: Love is like a cold – sooner or later we all come down with it – maybe even Brian. And speaking of cold,“ Emmett wrapped his arm around Justin’s shoulders and urged him forward, "let’s get inside before my balls start to shrivel.”

With a laugh Justin went inside with Emmett, clinging close, at least until they found Brian and Ted at a table. Almost at once Justin detached himself from Emmett and went to Brian, impulsively nuzzling a kiss to Brian’s throat. He missed the significant look Brian sent in Emmett’s direction.

Emmett, on the other hand, didn’t miss the _just what have you been filling his pretty little head with_ look Brian gave to him. Emmett merely smiled angelically and reached for the cosmo already on the table waiting for him.

“Thanks for ordering for me, sweetie,” he said and kissed Ted’s cheek as he slipped into a chair.

“Maybe _I_ ordered it for you,” Brian put in, disgruntled, and got three replies at once.

From Ted: “And pigs fly.”

From Emmett: “Oh, _please._ ”

From Justin: “As. If.”

Brian’s glare encompassed them all.

“So, Brian,” Emmett queried with a sunnily-barbed smile, “if you’re being so generous ordering drinks for us all, then where’s Ju-“

“Sorry for the mix up. Here’s the coke you wanted,” the server said, interrupting Emmett as he set down the bottle on the table between Brian and Justin.

Justin flashed a grin, first a startled one at Brian and then a triumphant one at Emmett. Ted’s brows rose. And Brian and Emmett stared each other down, Brian smirking at Emmett’s unconcealed surprise over the fact that he _had_ ordered something for Justin. Rendering Emmett Honeycutt speechless was no mean feat, even for Brian, and one that needed savoring, although his smirk faded into suspicion as Emmett’s face went from surprised to smug.

“Brian, sweetie,” Emmett eventually spoke, smiling even more sweetly than before. He winked at Justin before switching his eyes back to Brian. “You know, honey, I do believe you’re comin’ down with a cold…”


End file.
